BabuLife

Meet Me on Facebook

Over the weekend I logged on to Facebook and opened up an account.  As if I need another web thing to keep track of.  Join me on Facebook and you can get even more non-essential goofy stuff about me.

Facebook to me is a much cleaner answer to the cluttery (in my opinion) style of MySpace.  While I have a MySpace account, it does nothing but point to this blog.  With the MySpace I've been able to network with others, find old friends and reestablish connections with a relative.  I suppose Facebook will maybe give me the same opportunity with a much classier look and feel.  Anyone else out there using it?  If so...what do you think? 

For those of you already in the Facebook world out there, I can't figure out how to add you as a friend!  I can accept invitations but haven't been able to add friends.  Can anyone help?

Check out my Facebook public listing page here.

Summer Breakout 2007

Hitting the week hard with our Summer Breakout (SBO).  SBO is our little version of Vacation Bible School.  Had an amazing (hooah!) first day with about 230 first graders - sixth graders.  Visit our Pastor's site for a great post on this yearly huge outreach week at Grace.

Posting will be light this week.  Check back for updates and pics...still waiting on some pics of the new geetar!

See y'all!
-Babu

Nu-uh...I can't Believe this Happened

So I'm sitting in my office Friday late afternoon working on some music when I see Pat, our receptionist, through the window of my office door holding a giant box.  It looked like she needed help so I got up and went to the door.  I was confused by the giant Breedlove logo on the box wondering what in the world this was doing here.  Turns out someone out there felt led to purchase the guitar I blogged about and deliver it to my office.  HOLY COW!!!!  As our pastor, Tim Howey says . . . UN-BE-LIEVABLE.

To the anonymous donor...thank you soooo much.  I don't know what to say.  I was literally stunned and shocked.  Your heart was so uplifting....thank you sooo much for the card too.  God is definitely good.

Pics to come soon.

Super Cool Person of the Week: Camelia

Meet Camelia. For me there's no greater joy than working on a team of people that have that fire to reach people for Christ.  Camelia is a great example of someone who lives out her faith both through the worship at Grace onstage and through her life offstage.

You may not be aware of Camelia's heritage.  She was born in Romania and grew up there during the time when communism ruled her country.  I believe one reason she has such a heart to worship God and lead others is due to her experience living in that culture of religious oppression.  What greater way to learn who God is than to have to cling to him under such circumstances?  When the iron curtain fell in Romania, she met her husband, Video Doog, and the rest is history.

Camelia is such a strong leader on our worship team. She's helped so much in leading new singers on the team along with ministering to me through her great desire and love for leading others.  I've had folks come up to me and say how much they love seeing Camelia freely express her love for the Lord onstage.  Whether it's a silent prayer, a lifted hand or an encouraging smile, she's always a blessing to our church when she leads from the stage.  Camelia is one more reason I love being a part of the Weekend Service Team at Grace.  Thanks Camelia for being a part of the team!!!

Be sure to tell Camelia this week that she's SUPER COOL!!!

Will the iPhone Blend?

Enjoy this little video. 
HT: Neil Greathouse

Sprint Cuts Customers Off

I believe this is a first.  I've never heard of a company actually eliminating customers because of their high maintenence phone calls.  Do you think Sprint will gain any new customers once word of this new "cost saving" tactic gets out?   Is this an example of a company feeling it's a "privelege" to be a part of their network?  By the way...to all my Sprint buddies who work there...can you get the network to work in my house please?  I mean, the world headquarters is located in the same county. 

Here's the story:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Hundreds of cell phone customers are being given the boot, accused of being too high maintenance.Sprint-Nextel is disconnecting more than 1,000 subscribers on grounds the clients call customer service too often and make "unreasonable requests."The 1,200 people getting dropped will have to find a new carrier by the end of the month. Continue reading...

Update: A Sprint employee has turned in a work order on my behalf to look at the network around my home.  I thought that was pretty good customer service.

Update 2: Check out Seth Godin's post regarding this issue here.

Meet my New Guitar . . .

Sometime in the future.  This is it.  The one.  I will be stuffing cash in my Dave Ramsey envelope system for this little item.  I dragged the wife out to Guitar Source today and embarrassed her with my guitar geek enthusiasm. 

So...have a look at the pics...it's the Breedlove Atlas AC25/SR Plus with the sunburst top.  It's going to take some time for saving, but I WILL NOT use a credit card.  That's for all my Financial Peace University buddies out there.

Worship Confessional: 7/8/07

Strange day today.  I was the audio man sitting in the booth with the video and lighting fellas.  Today was going to be a day off for me, but our entire audio team was also vacationing.  I'll be skipping out two Sundays in August.

A couple of shouts out today. Brian King who led worship...great job today man! Thank you so much for leading.  And to Kevin who sat in on acoustic, thank you thank you thank you!  It's so nice to be able to take a break and know that there are folks who can step up and lead.  Great job team!

Lots of oldies but goodies today:

• Let Everything that Has Breath by Matt Redman
• Sing to the King by Candi Pearson (Passion Worship)
• Meet with Me by Ten Shekel Shirt
• Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin
• Forever by Chris Tomlin

Back on the stage next week. 

Friday Fun: Stormtrooper Dance

Father Optimus

Caught the new Transformers movie this past week...twice.  I was never a fan of the cartoon but was well aware in 1986 of the popularity of Optimus Prime and his Autobot companions.  I was busy transforming from preteen adolecent to teenager.  Walking into the lobby of the theater I caught a glimpse of the nostalgia of the generation that missed the Star Wars craze in the late 1970's & early 80's.  A dude dressed as Optimus Prime in a giant cardboard box and a Prime mask stood there greeting people.  I admired his devotion to his cartoon hero by saying, "Cool costume, love it" to which he replied in an electronic voice "thank you".

I was hitting my favorite blogs this week and ran across an interesting article by James Harleman found on The Resurgence site about Optimus Prime and his impact on the fatherless.  Check it out:

I had a sermon to preach about Optimus Prime some day. For better or worse, WIRED magazine beat me to it. Pointing out that while geeks have Batmen and Star Trek toys in their cubicles, even the jocks have Transformers decorating their workspaces, WIRED writer Scott Brown explores the reasons why in the July print edition.

"…in 1986, the original Prime did something that distinguished him from most other cartoon heroes. He died. He died for freedom, for righteousness". Brown goes on to assert that American culture – American males – are looking forward to the July 4th release of the "live-action" Transformers movie for "more than galvanic summer thrills or simple nostalgia. They're looking for redemption, as men."

While Brown forgets to mention Optimus did resurrect from the dead to "light our darkest hour" in 1987, missing the exclamation point on his Semi-Christophany, he strikes a narrative chord that is unmistakable. Bouncing between comparing Prime to a father and "Our Father..." the WIRED writer demonstrates how this hydraulic hero became a surrogate object for kids to respect, mimic, and yes – even worship:

"Prime practically parented the latchkey kids of the mid-‘80s. He was our Allfather at a time when flesh-and-blood role models were increasingly few and far between".  Read the rest here . . .

By the way...the movie rocked!